"There is a good amount of permanent candidates, and there has been since the beginning of the year," Derbyshire says.

The situation is a flow-on from last year, when many permanent candidates changed jobs after the recession conditions of 2009.

"Many have moved on and there's a need to replace them."

Demand is particularly high in the insurance and financial services sectors, which were the first to recover from the recession, he says.

Robert Walters is getting a steady stream of work from the large global IT vendors and there is also demand from the telco and education sectors, he says.